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This thesis explores the emergence of functional collusion in groups and communities. Collusion is often taken up as synonymous with conspiracy, as a negative aspect of people seeking to get an advantage by nefarious means. In contrast, the thesis points to how a form of collusion might have a function for supporting people in their ongoing relating and in doing so suggests that there are two important factors in functional collusion. The first is that contextual history is key to understanding how, without planning or discussion, collusion emerges and is maintained in groups and communities. The second is that an absence of discussion is key because bringing collusive patterns of relating into our conversations disables their continuation. This thesis argues that collusion arises as people avoid the discomfort of emotions such as shame as well as maintaining familiar patterns of power relating. As collusive patterns of relating tend to emerge undiscussed between people, the thesis suggests that deciding whether to uncover and discuss them is a matter of contextual practical judgement or phronesis as it will inevitably require the navigation of ethical dilemmas which the author argues cannot be solved simply through the application of universal rules. This thesis offers a challenge to the way people working as organisational development practitioners think about their practice, especially those working in the not-for-profit sector.

Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003.

During the past three decades the economic performances of South Africa organisations were poor. This poor performance forced a lot of South African organisations to look at the way they do business. A method to analyse the way business is conducted through an Organisation Diagnose. Organisation Diagnose is the process of using concepts and methods from the social and behavioural sciences to assess the current state of an entire organisation and to find ways to improve the organisations effectiveness. The aim of this research was to evaluate perceptions of employees of a distribution organisation through an Organisation Diagnose. A cross-sectional design was used as model for the research. Interviews and questionnaires were used as methods for data gathering. A representative sample (N=30) from different job levels and departments were interviewed. The main themes were identified and these themes were included in the questionnaire as dimensions. The Study population (N=88) was chosen from a depot of a distributing organisation. The empirical investigation was aimed at establishing the reliability and validity of the derived questionnaire and to determine the important dimensions to be focused on with regards to interventions. The results of the empirical study showed that employees of a depot of a distributing organisation tend to have positive perceptions about supervision, remuneration and change organisations. The research also showed that employees of a depot of a distributing organisation tend to have negative perceptions about interpersonal relationships and promotion. The research also indicated a large number of factors that was considered as neutral. This can be an indication that employees of a depot of a distribution organisation may have a lack of motivation. Finally suggestions for future research were made. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003.

During the past three decades the economic performances of South Africa organisations were poor. This poor performance forced a lot of South African organisations to look at the way they do business. A method to analyse the way business is conducted through an Organisation Diagnose. Organisation Diagnose is the process of using concepts and methods from the social and behavioural sciences to assess the current state of an entire organisation and to find ways to improve the organisations effectiveness. The aim of this research was to evaluate perceptions of employees of a distribution organisation through an Organisation Diagnose. A cross-sectional design was used as model for the research. Interviews and questionnaires were used as methods for data gathering. A representative sample (N=30) from different job levels and departments were interviewed. The main themes were identified and these themes were included in the questionnaire as dimensions. The Study population (N=88) was chosen from a depot of a distributing organisation. The empirical investigation was aimed at establishing the reliability and validity of the derived questionnaire and to determine the important dimensions to be focused on with regards to interventions. The results of the empirical study showed that employees of a depot of a distributing organisation tend to have positive perceptions about supervision, remuneration and change organisations. The research also showed that employees of a depot of a distributing organisation tend to have negative perceptions about interpersonal relationships and promotion. The research also indicated a large number of factors that was considered as neutral. This can be an indication that employees of a depot of a distribution organisation may have a lack of motivation. Finally suggestions for future research were made. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003.

No / This paper aims to describe the development of a wholly new model of transformational leadership and its applications in practice. The paper provides a description of a wholly new, inclusive model of transformational leadership and the way in which it can be applied in practice, in the context of embedding good leadership within the culture of an organisation and ensuring "best practice" in 360-degree feedback. The paper finds that the Transformational Leadership Questionnaire (TLQ)¿, which is both gender- and ethnicity-inclusive measure of "nearby" leadership, differs fundamentally from the kind of "heroic" models that have emanated from the USA and which have dominated the literature. Comparative data are presented of the mean scores on the TLQ, based on direct reports' ratings of their line manager, across a wide range of public sector organisations, including local government, the NHS, schools, and two central government agencies. Patterns emerge in areas of strength and developmental need, and the implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the impact of leadership behaviour and its effect on the psychological safety and well-being at work of staff. The following needs are identified: - to adopt a model of leadership that is relevant to the needs of organisations in the twenty-first century; to embed good leadership practices at all levels; to ensure that, when 360-degree feedback is given, it is done so in a way that conforms to the principles of 'best practice'. The following model of "nearby" leadership that is described is relevant to leaders at all levels in public and private sector organisations. It points to the consequences of poor leadership behaviour, and the need for the adoption of a model of leadership that is relevant to the needs of the twenty-first century.

Organisational design, development and change management is about dealing with the effectiveness and efficiency of organisations. Organisational design, development and change management practitioners use systematic strategies and approaches to improve the productivity of organisations and the well-being of individuals. In order to do this, the organisational design, development and change management practitioner must be able to manage customers, competition, change, relationships and processes. There is a need to understand the impacts of successful organisational design, development and change management implementations as they influence the success of an organisation. The aim of this study is to explore practitioners’ knowledge and experiences of organisational design, development and change management implementation. The objectives included explorations of practitioners’ experiences working on organisational design, development and change management implementations. The study is qualitative, exploratory research. Data was collected by means of face-to-face interviews guided by a semi structured interview schedule. Participants’ were practitioners working in the field of organisational design, development and change management. The study used non-probability (non-random) purposive, snowball sampling. The data was analysed using thematic content analysis to identify themes and sub themes in the data. The findings indicate what organisational design, development and change management involves, what the benefits are and the successes and challenges practitioners have encountered during implementation. The macroeconomic environment in which organisations operate is ever changing and in order to keep up, organisations need to call on experienced practitioners to assist in managing the change. The implications of the results will assist the industry as well as organisations to understand the value organisational design, development and change management implementations in enabling business strategies and driving organizations to achieve its business objective thus promoting and growing the discipline and practice.These insights will also contribute to the discipline and the availability of such data will assist future practitioners to be more effective in their roles.

This research report investigates the way that course designers in the financial services industry use and engage with unit standards. The origins of unit standards, theories drawn from the sociology of education, and interviews with course developers jointly contribute to understanding how unit standards are received and used within an organisational context. Eight informal interviews were conducted with self-employed course designers, to examine how they use unit standards when developing learning material in business contexts. These interviews indicated that course designers had many issues and concerns regarding these documents. Five course developers working in three large organisations in the financial services industry were further interviewed, formally, to establish how they use and engage with unit standards. The findings from both sets of interviews suggest that unit standards are used in a limited capacity in organisational course development in this industry, because they do not correspond to the training requirements of the respective organisations interviewed. However, unit standards are used in Learnership programmes, because a different training objective is pursued, namely a social justice and redress objective and not a business objective. Although the research indicates that course developers would welcome some kind of standardisation or regulatory system to direct course design, they are opposed to the existing design and structure of unit standards.

This research suggests that to model the complex dynamics of the organisational change in a firm evolving as it implements internet technologies requires capturing diverse independent and interdependent processes across multiple temporal and spatial context both within and external to the firm. This presents both an ontological and epistemological challenge as dominant research methods are either atemporal in nature and attribute action to disembodied variables or are simply storytelling. To provide explanatory legitimacy requires going deeper to capture the action of actors 'acting' within multiple levels of context and to pinpoint deeper 'rock-bottom' causal mechanisms that drive the higher order processes that give rise to the 'organisational life' we observe. To accomplish explanatory legitimacy I develop an analytical method that makes processuality fundamental and allows for the examination and theorising about mechanisms. The first essential element of this method is a framework that guides the researcher in the systematic gathering together of what we already know from the multidisciplinary and eclectic research in e-business, and in the intensive work of gathering empirical evidence. I apply a new methodology I call narrative sequence analysis, that combines process tracing and sequence analyses to make processes intelligible and help illustrate how mechanisms drive these processes. I use this method to develop an explanatory account of the process of e-business development covering three episodes of change within the Commonwealth Bank of Australia from 1995 to 2006. The research finds that the firm evolves over time as it develops new capabilities and identifies and pursues development opportunities by assembling and committing resources to e-business though both technology development and business application. It draws on past experience and gradually learns to develop, integrate and implement technology into existing business operations, discovers new innovative opportunities in which to apply the technology or is drawn into new areas by others who identify opportunities in which to apply the firm's knowledge, resources and technology. The path to development depends on the firms starting position and the timing of the sequence of events encountered along the way. It is a coevolutionary process where the firm interacts, cooperates, adapts and responds to the actions and interactions of other actors, balanced by the uncertainty of e-business and business operation risk.